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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975191">The Vampire Job</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93'>Whedonista93</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Spooky Season 2020 [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Blade (Movie Series), Leverage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crossover, Gen, Immortality, Vampires</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:22:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,372</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He keeps to himself. He goes his own way. He doesn’t get involved. And then he takes a job that shunts him right back into the midst of humanity.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Spooky Season 2020 [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958881</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Vampire Job</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eliot has had centuries to learn to control the creature beneath his skin. He keeps to himself. He goes his own way. He doesn’t get involved. And then he takes a job that shunts him right back into the midst of humanity. It doesn’t seem as if he’s escaping it again any time soon.</p><p> </p><p>“Dude, are vampires real?” Hardison asks.</p><p>Eliot’s knife slips and he slices his palm. He shifts his hand over the sink before his blood can drip on dinner. “What?”</p><p>Hardison taps a few keys and pulls up a video feed on one of his main screens. “I’ve been keeping an eye on all the Black Book companies. One of them was a New York based company called Talos Corporation. I hacked their security system a while back, and there’s been some hinky shit over the years, but… check this out.” Hardison plays the feed.</p><p>Eliot watches the video of the fight. Haridon’s not wrong. Vampires have a distinctive way of moving, and a lot of those creeps are definitely vampires. A handful are hunters. The girl with the bow reminds him of Abraham Whistler. And, yup, that one is Blade. Eliot’s made a point of keeping an eye on him over the years. And Blade is fighting… “Shit.” Eliot’s hands ripple, and his control slips for the first time in more than a century.</p><p>Hardison startles. “Huh?”</p><p>“They fucking woke Drake up.”</p><p>Hardison raises a hand. “Inquiring minds, my man.”</p><p>Eliot takes a deep breath, forces himself back into his skin. “Yeah, Hardison, vampires are real.”</p><p>Hardison jumps to his feet. “Eliot! Damn… this is information you should feel the need to share, man. Ignorance is not bliss, my friend! You’re not screwin’ with me, are you?”</p><p>Eliot closes his eyes. “It’s not the kind of thing you can unknow, man… It throws you into a world you can’t ignore.”</p><p>“But think of how many more people we could have been saving knowing about both,” Parker points out, dropping from a vent.</p><p>“I still ain’t convinced you’re human,” Eliot mutters to himself. He sets the knife aside and joins them in front of the screens. “This world… it’s dangerous.”</p><p>Parker shrugs. “So is what we do.”</p><p>Eliot shakes his head. “This is dangerous in a different way.” Eliot points at the monster on the screen. “Especially if that asshole is awake.”</p><p>“What do you mean awake?” Hardison asks.</p><p>“He was buried in a very deep, very dark hole in the middle of a Sumerian desert and he should’ve fucking stayed there.”</p><p>“Okay, it looks like…” Hardison shakes his head. “Man this in one hinky police report. So, they took this Blade character’s body from the scene, but witnesses at the morgue claim it turned into this other guy, what’d you call him, Drake?”</p><p>Eliot nods.</p><p>“Right, so they say his body turned into this Drake guy, and the camera from the business across the street shows him walking out of the building less than three hours after he was brought in.”</p><p>“Track him,” Eliot demands.</p><p> </p><p>Hardison finds him in the Sumerian desert. He’s restored the palace that was his resting place.</p><p>“You can’t go with me,” Eliot tries telling Hardison and Parker.</p><p>The looks that cross their faces tell Eliot it’s a hopeless argument. If they don’t go <em> with </em> him, they’ll follow <em> after </em> him, and Eliot knows even he’s not fast enough to have the fight finished before they show up.</p><p>“This isn’t a con, guys. This is a fight. Brutal and nasty and bloody.”</p><p>Hardison scoffs. “And you think you’re gonna win without us.”</p><p>Eliot closes his eyes. “It’s the only way I <em> can </em> win.”</p><p>“We’re not a weakness,” Parker spits fiercely.</p><p>Eliot opens his eyes. “No, but you are weak.”</p><p>Parker scowls at him.</p><p>Eliot sighs and stands. He’d hoped to never show them this. He breathes in, and lets the creature beneath his skin emerge when he exhales. Where Drake’s creatures is all reds and spikes - meant to draw attention - Eliot’s form is mottled black and gray. Drake was born and raised to rule. Eliot was meant to fight. To blend with the shadows, to be the hidden blade that the enemy never saw coming. </p><p>Hardison lets out a low whistle. “Shit, man, no wonder you’re so hard to kill.”</p><p>Parker has her head tilted, eyes calculating - it’s the look she usually wears before she starts poking the bruises he doesn’t let heal.</p><p>He holds his arm out to her. “You can touch,” he rumbles. “Careful of the spikes, they’re as sharp as they look.”</p><p>Parker pounces on him with a giggle. “Your voice is even growlier than usual.”</p><p>Eliot rolls his eyes, and lets Parker clamber over him, Hardison watching on in amusement, until her curiosity is satisfied, then carefully shift back.</p><p>Parker giggles. “Your shirt didn’t survive.”</p><p>Eliot curses and stomps back to his room long enough to put non-shredded clothes on. He slumps onto the couch. “I can fight Drake. You guys can’t.”</p><p>“You’ve taught us to fight,” Hardison argues.</p><p>“Not this,” Eliot counters. </p><p>“So make us like you,” Parker suggests like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.</p><p>Eliot freezes. In all his millenia, he’s never turned anyone. He shakes his head. “I can’t do that, Parker.”</p><p>“Can’t, or won’t?” Hardison asks.</p><p>“You said you’d protest us until your dying day,” Parker points out, and of course she overheard that conversation, “and your dying day is a long way away from ours, right?”</p><p>“If it ever comes,” Eliot agrees slowly.</p><p>Parker shrugs. “So make ours longer too. Vampires live longer, right?”</p><p>“Wait, how do you walk in the sun, man?” Haridson asks.</p><p>Eliot rolls his eyes. “I’m old, Hardison. Very old. Vampires today, the ones in all your books and comics, they’re <em> weak </em>. Diluted from what they were.”</p><p>“So if you turned us, we’d be more like you, right?”</p><p>“Why would you want this life?” Eliot demands.</p><p>“So we can stay together,” Hardison answers, as if it’s as obvious as Parker’s solution if turning them in the first place. And when it comes down to it… well, they might not be wrong.</p><p> </p><p>“I know you’re there, brother,” Drake drawls, idly sprawled across his throne in human form.</p><p>Eliot melts out of the shadows, jeans and plaid out of place in the opulent throne room. “You’ve been busy, brother.”</p><p>Drake shrugs. “Took you long enough to find me.”</p><p>“I wasn’t looking until you made a mess in New York.”</p><p>“I didn’t start that.”</p><p>“Still.”</p><p>“Why are you here Enkara? Do you wish to return to your place at my side?”</p><p>Eliot shakes his head. “I made my own place when you decided to sleep, Drake.”</p><p>“I could make you stay.”</p><p>Eliot shifts. Parker and Hardison melt out of the shadows to stand at his shoulders. Parker’s creature form is almost alarmingly like Eliot’s - gray and black, perfect for blending into the shadows, but she’s far sleeker and smoother, her armored skin lacking the spikes of Eliot’s, but boasting a pair of wings that tuck neatly against her back when not in use. Hardison is all reds and yellow accents - meant to draw attention, like Drake’s form - and he’s taller and broader than Eliot’s own form; he’s built for brute force, his form meant to instill fear. He had expected Parker’s form, but Hardison’s was a surprise until he realized that the very appearance of Hardison’s form would more often than not keep him from having to fight - most enemies would not even want to approach him.</p><p>On his throne, Drake’s eyes are wide. It’s the most surprise Eliot has ever seen on his brother’s face.</p><p>“When you abandoned your people, brother,” Eliot rumbles, “I could not wait around for you to wake and rule and return to my place as your guard.”</p><p>“You could have ruled,” Drake suggests.</p><p>Eliot shakes his head. “I was never meant to rule. I made my own path.”</p><p>“Then why are you here?” Drake roars, shooting to his feet. </p><p>Eliot grins. The expression is feral, more dangerous in this form than his human guise. “I’m here to warn you, brother. The vampires are out of control. If you don’t get your house in order, <em> I will</em>.”</p><p>
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